1988 Seoul, South Korea
In
1988 George Bush is elected president of the USA and Michael Gorbachov
is presenting "perestroika" to the Russian people. The world
is in constant change. The communist nations are condensing and Holland
becomes the European Football Champion via Marco Van Basten.
The number 9.79 seems to be more of a radio frequency rather than Ben Johnson’s official time for the 100m. Two female American athletes, Jackie Joyner Kearsy and Florence Griffith are described as a gorilla and a man respectively. Evelyn Ashford the runner up in the 200m stated that only a man could run the 200m in 21.34’.
Greg Louganis was the star of the diving event. He was injured (5 stitches) when he jumped off the board. The swimming pool changed into a sea of red and Louganis was terrified since he was aware of the fact that he was an AIDS victim, but unaware that chlorium killed the virus. His coach and partner died in 1995 from the AIDS virus.
These Olympics were described as the "Olympics of doping as usual". Many records of the time are still doubted today since athletes in the 80’s were far ahead of the Olympic doctors. The drugs taken were not known and doctors along with doping control officials were not able to detect them.